Situation in Uganda 

All went alright towards the end of the year despite some political problems that we had in the Northern and in the Southern parts of the country. In the Southern parts, where there was the war between the board of Uganda and Zaire, two of our 48 sponsoren bikes that we had given to the people there, were taken by the rebels. I am glad to report that this has changed out now since the last three months that there is peace again in these areas. However, it¥s also very sad that my brothers in Zaire are now suffering due to the big strangle of political power that we have always in Africa. We hold our fingers crossed that all these will come to a good end that will bring all sides to a good balance. 
Last year we have had a number of visitors to the workshop both from Uganda and Europe. Some people also from our counterparts in Germany came to check and see how the work is going on and also some two students for their practical studies. We are glad, that we can also offer an opportunity for students of Social Work in Germany to do their practical part in our bicycle sponsorship project. We hope that this will continue. 

Conference in Bad Boll 

Since the 9 th March this year I was in Germany for three months. I was invited by the world council of churches to attend an international conference on "Sustainable mobility worldwide" in Bad-Boll. For me this was something very special to be invited and to take part actively in this topic. During our one week-tour to the different cities, I got some strange impressions of mobility in your country: 
I noticed that some of the railway connections to the small villages were disconnected and this made the transport for these people very difficult. One result ist that they are forced to buy cars and therefore the traffic on the road is increasing. Besides this fact, the Deutsche Bahn AG in Stuttgart is planning a project in Stuttgart, called "Stuttgart 21", where they want to build a new line under ground, 12 km entering the city to the main station. This project is a mega one with lots and lots of DM only that people have to gain 15 minutes to be faster all in all, incredible for me. It was very difficult for me to understand this and to accept. I thought that they could have reconnected the disconnected lines so that people can go more by train and have less traffic on the roads, being in time for work, but not to construct new lines. 
On the other hand as a visitor to Stuttgart, I would like to enjoy the 12 km looking at the city and not to come under ground with the train seeing nothing from the surroundings. 
Another deep impression: The delegation of Mercedes Benz (Stuttgart)-the very, very big car producer- had difficulties to shift us from certain places to the other on their compound. They didn¥t expect us by train and taxi. So we and they were somehow stuck. It took a long time that they organised to transport us to the meeting room. Finally the 9 people of our group were taken by a big bus (over 40 places) pulling another two extra trailers for people extra but empty. It was also a problem to bring us to the station as we had to leave. We wanted to go by taxi again but they refused. So, finally we ended up taking two very small but expensive cars (coupes) of the officers several times to get all to the station. Even both of the drivers didn¥t know how to get to the train station 3 km away, they never had been there before. One of them brought one of us to a wrong train station. But finally we made it. I don¥t know if one of the big heads of the Benz-Company is now wearing my special offer to him the T-shirt printed on: "Arthur sold off his new Benz and bought 327 bicycles....". 

Other places that we visited were Munich (to get informations about the Agenda 21 process), B–blingen (to a new privat railway-path-initiative) and Freiburg city. Our week was full of impressions and we noticed as well the following: 
- there were many environmental pressure (lobby) groups in the various cities all campaigning for sustainable mobility and that they new their rights and duties working very powerful with good ideas 
- although it seemed to be that the lobby groups had an harmonious relationship with the local and central authorities, we smelt some difficulties in cooperationg to promote dialog on sustainable mobility. 
- a car is a very important symbol of status. People need them for their ego-boost and for compensation. 
 

Finally 

Some experiences, impressions and news from the conference, where I presented our bicycle sponsorship project and the situation in Uganda, I now take back to Uganda. For example: - a number of people, organisations and projects started to respect the work of the Jugendhilfe Ostafrika Bicycle Sponsorship Project with its local initiatives 
- the church has realised the damage that they have to contribute to the environment by driving and flying and now ay start to change it 
- some important contacts and informations maybe some more friends 
- people are overstressed as they have to work a lot to be able to buy a car and to maintain it this makes them dependend 
- people are not satisfied with what what they have so that they need more and more (restless) 
- many people start to realise what will happen if they don't change the motorised behaviour and its effects on the environment 
- and a lot more..... 

And finally let me mention a big Asante sana (Dankeschön) to the two main organisators of this conference Ralf Häusler and Jobst Kraus from the Ev. Akademie in Bad-Boll they did a very good job! 

Richard Kisamadu